Mother: Father In Infant Homicide Was Mentally Ill

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – More information is being revealed about the 21-year-old man accused of killing his 4-month-old baby girl Saturday evening.

The father in custody is 21-year-old Cory Morris.

According to the Star Tribune, Morris' mother claims her son is "very ill." She said they have "been trying to get him into some mental health treatment" without success.

It was just before 5 p.m. Saturday evening when police got a 911 call to respond to a home on the 1900 block of Franklin Avenue Southeast, located in the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis.

Upon arrival, police said they found a 4-month-old baby girl in the home who had been assaulted. She was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center where she was pronounced dead.

Police arrested the baby's father, Morris, and said he and the baby were home alone at the time of the call.

"In a perfect world there would be no crime, but the important thing to know is that we're going to treat this just like we would every case. We are going to do a thorough investigation. Sometimes investigations do take time and when we have all the facts, that'll be presented to the county attorney's office for charges," Minneapolis Police Officer Corey Schmidt said.

It is still unclear why, if Morris was "very ill," he was alone with the child.

The Star Tribune spoke with a source who said the child's mother was at work. The suspect's mother also said he was helping to care for the little girl.

She also said the last time she saw the baby was one to two weeks ago and that the family is heartbroken.

Morris' public record had only a few traffic tickets on it prior to this arrest. Now, police said he could be charged with murder.